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Teachers concerned about students’ online research skills

By eSchool News staff, eSchool News, November 5, 2012 — Teachers are concerned that students are a little too quick to turn to Google and other internet search engines for answers: That’s one finding of a Pew Research Center survey of more than 2,000 teachers nationwide queried about students’ digital research habits.

“Now, by default, they go online and they search,” said Lee Rainie, director of Pew’s Internet and American Life Project. “In some respects, that simplifies things.” On the other hand, Rainie said, it means that students are prioritizing that information in a way that might not give them access to all the high-quality and relevant stuff that would be useful.